Pope Pius XI described veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the epitome of our entire religion. In 1928, Pius XI wrote a beautiful encyclical called Miserentissimus Redemptor, On Reparation to the Sacred Heart. The sacred heart he wrote, “the sum of all religion” and “the pattern of perfect life.”
We are called to love like Our Miserentissimus Redemptor, Our Most Merciful Redeemer.
Pius XI says, meditating on Christ, “we see Him laboring for man, sorrowing, suffering the greatest hardships, "for us men and for our salvation," well-nigh worn out with sadness, with anguish, nay "bruised for our sins" and healing us by His bruises (MR 13)”. Love means a willingness to suffer for the Will of God, for the salvation of men.
This is why earlier this week, we heard of the suffering of the martyrs as the highest expression of our faith.
The Church is called to make reparation to the Sacred Heart on behalf of all sinful humanity who continues to turn to sin rather than God. The Church makes reparation for all clerics who preach a false gospel, for all of us who are ungrateful for the gifts God bestows upon us, those who respond to the call to spread the Gospel with negligence, those who are indifferent to the Gospel.
Jesus’ overflowing charity, his call to repentance, is met with so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt. There are attacks against the Church, godless institutions seeking snatch young people, as Pius XI says, from the bosom of their mother the Church.”
Yet, how more lamentable, he says, “among the faithful, washed in Baptism with the blood of the immaculate Lamb, and enriched with grace, there are found so many men of every class, who laboring under an incredible ignorance of Divine things and infected with false doctrines, far from their Father's home, lead a life involved in vices”
What an age we live in! In some parts of the world, Christians die for the faith, in many parts of our own country, many would rather die than practice it!
Love of God certainly impels us to make reparation for our failures to love, and to seek all the more, God’s grace to love as we should, to be faithful to the whole Gospel, not just those parts that suit us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
[below is a link to Pius XI's Encyclical and the Prayer of Reparation with which he ends the encyclical]
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In reparation to the Sacred Heart for all sin and all blasphemy, we pray to the Lord.
For an increase in faith, hope, and love for all Christians, we pray to the Lord.
That our bishops and clergy may be zealous in preaching and teaching the truth of the Gospel, and that our future bishop of the diocese of Cleveland may be a man of true faith and the Holy Spirit.
That this fortnight of prayer for religious freedom may help people of faith remain vigilant in defending their religious liberty and united in making their voice heard on behalf of the rights of the Church.
That our young people on summer vacation may be kept safe from the poisonous errors of our culture, and that their families may be places where the faith is practiced and cherished.
For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.
Link to Miserentisimus Redemptor: https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19280508_miserentissimus-redemptor.html
Here is the Prayer of Reparation which Pius XI ended his encyclical:
O sweet Jesus, Whose overflowing charity for me is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Your altar eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries, to which Your loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying for from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow You, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the vows of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Your Law. We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against You; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holidays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against You and Your Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Your Vicar on earth and Your priest are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Your Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which You have founded. Would, O divine Jesus, we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Your divine honor, the satisfaction You once made to Your eternal Father on the cross and which You continue to renews daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Your Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Your grace, for all neglect of Your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth we will live a life of unwavering faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent other from offending You and to bring as many as possible to follow You.
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowing gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to You, so that we may one day come to that happy home, where You with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, world without end. Amen.
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